E Connect North East – Guwahati Edition

The goal of this seminar e-Connecting North East is to promote healthy development of Internet in North East and make it an active part of the world internet community. This is expected to be a link among relevant internet communities, enterprises and organizations for benefitting the whole industry, to protect internet user’s interests, to strengthen communication and coordination between communities and governments, improve the implementation of relevant policies and regulations, promote internet application and public awareness. The reliance on Internet has increased both in the country and in the North East states of India in how we conduct our day to day lives. Though technology has come to remove the barriers of last mile access, thereby reducing the access issues to a larger extent but there are access issues in North East, which needs to be talked about, debated and actions taken against each one of them. The seminar is an attempt to bring the issues on to the table and to the forefront of all, active in policy making so that the issues are differentiated in the context of North East and dealt properly. There are opportunities to participate in the management of Internet’s key technical resources and policy development, wherein the academia and students can play a role and a significant objective of the seminar is to create public awareness around it so that Increased and effective participation creates an opportunity to reframe the debate at the international level, national level and the regional level. The business from North East is having a large stake in ensuring that the policy debate about issues with an Internet dimension taken care off. It needs to be ensured that while efforts are being made to use it to solve broader social issues like education and security, the business requirements, are not undermined. The seminar in Guwahati is the first of the series of seminars on this subject being organized by Internet Society Kolkata Chapter with the help of Business & their Chambers, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) & ISPAI, in each of the North Eastern State. The learning from each of the seminars in the form of interventions, discussions and points raised will be synthesized and a report will be submitted to all stakeholders including government for their action.